Academics and shipbuilders called on the government to establish a dedicated cross-department task force to ensure the nation’s efforts to build submarines and combat ships prioritizes domestic resources as well as fostering local professionals and workers.
The suggestions were made on Friday at a public hearing at the Legislative Yuan in Taipei.
Tsai Tsung-liang (蔡宗亮), a professor at National Taiwan University’s Yen Tjing Ling Industrial Research Institute, said the government should not focus solely on the national defense side of the ships project, but be aware of how the industry is linked to others.
Citing the “Ten Major Infrastructure Projects” (十大建設) implemented by former president Chiang Ching-kuo (蔣經國) as an example, Tsai said the effects of the project are still extant today and the government should consider how the project would affect long-term economic development.
The shipbuilding project faces challenges, but such challenges could be greatly mitigated if the government made plans in advance and established specific task forces to coordinate matters, Tsai said, adding that a lack of immediate funding could be resolved through incremental injections.
Preparatory work for the project, such as establishing contracts with companies for materials and producing detailed designs, should come first, Tsai said, adding that the government should not rush the project.
Ship and Ocean Industries Research and Development Center chief executive Ko Yung-tse (柯永澤) said maintaining an autonomous national defense and economic development would be primary difficulties for the project, adding that the nation’s shipbuilding industry was also short on personnel with the required skill sets or knowledge.
“It is possible that the shipbuilding sector is not going to be able to provide the personnel required, so the government needs to come up with a solution,” Ko said.
Ministry of National Defense official Liu Ching-chung (劉靖中) said the ministry estimates that the majority of the needed equipment could be provided domestically and through foreign channels.
The nation hopes to make improvements to several types of key equipment and technologies based on Taiwan’s current shipbuilding capabilities, which would serve to create a foundation for its industry to eventually produce its own combat ships.
Democratic Progressive Party Legislator Lai Jui-lung (賴瑞隆) said the Executive Yuan should establish a task force and look into how to increase the number of the nation’s shipbuilding experts.
The ministry and the Coast Guard Administration should also prioritize arms deals with domestic shipyards once Taiwan has achieved manufacturing capabilities, Lai said.
A group of Taiwanese-American and Tibetan-American students at Harvard University on Saturday disrupted Chinese Ambassador to the US Xie Feng’s (謝鋒) speech at the school, accusing him of being responsible for numerous human rights violations. Four students — two Taiwanese Americans and two from Tibet — held up banners inside a conference hall where Xie was delivering a speech at the opening ceremony of the Harvard Kennedy School China Conference 2024. In a video clip provided by the Coalition of Students Resisting the CCP (Chinese Communist Party), Taiwanese-American Cosette Wu (吳亭樺) and Tibetan-American Tsering Yangchen are seen holding banners that together read:
UNAWARE: Many people sit for long hours every day and eat unhealthy foods, putting them at greater risk of developing one of the ‘three highs,’ an expert said More than 30 percent of adults aged 40 or older who underwent a government-funded health exam were unaware they had at least one of the “three highs” — high blood pressure, high blood lipids or high blood sugar, the Health Promotion Administration (HPA) said yesterday. Among adults aged 40 or older who said they did not have any of the “three highs” before taking the health exam, more than 30 percent were found to have at least one of them, Adult Preventive Health Examination Service data from 2022 showed. People with long-term medical conditions such as hypertension or diabetes usually do not
POLICE INVESTIGATING: A man said he quit his job as a nurse at Taipei Tzu Chi Hospital as he had been ‘disgusted’ by the behavior of his colleagues A man yesterday morning wrote online that he had witnessed nurses taking photographs and touching anesthetized patients inappropriately in Taipei Tzu Chi Hospital’s operating theaters. The man surnamed Huang (黃) wrote on the Professional Technology Temple bulletin board that during his six-month stint as a nurse at the hospital, he had seen nurses taking pictures of patients, including of their private parts, after they were anesthetized. Some nurses had also touched patients inappropriately and children were among those photographed, he said. Huang said this “disgusted” him “so much” that “he felt the need to reveal these unethical acts in the operating theater
Heat advisories were in effect for nine administrative regions yesterday afternoon as warm southwesterly winds pushed temperatures above 38°C in parts of southern Taiwan, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said. As of 3:30pm yesterday, Tainan’s Yujing District (玉井) had recorded the day’s highest temperature of 39.7°C, though the measurement will not be included in Taiwan’s official heat records since Yujing is an automatic rather than manually operated weather station, the CWA said. Highs recorded in other areas were 38.7°C in Kaohsiung’s Neimen District (內門), 38.2°C in Chiayi City and 38.1°C in Pingtung’s Sandimen Township (三地門), CWA data showed. The spell of scorching